Shaking It Up

The rumored firing of Nationals Manny Acta is akin to shaking up the printer cartridge when the “Toner Low” light has been blinking for three months. It’s hard to believe much will happen when the new manager presses the print button, but why the heck not give it a try.

Many in Washington believe that Manny Acta is not the problem, the team is the problem. The Nationals’ defense is the worst in the NL, the pitching is young and inexperienced. Only a fool would have put this team together in the first place, but it is hard to believe it should be losing at a near record-stetting pace.

Jim Bowden hung on for more than a season after an embarrasing arrest and constant losing. Many were surprised by the patience that Stan Kasten and the Lerners showed with a Bowden. So it should be no surprise that the same front office has been slow to pull the plug on Acta.

Acta has shown no reason for anyone to believe he is ready to manage a winner. In his first season he took over from Frank Robinson and moved the team ahead of the Marlins for the only time the Nationals have avoided last place in the NL East. But there was no real difference in the results except the Marlins were a worse team that season.

The one thing Acta inherited from Robinson was a strong bullpen that from 2005 to 2007 was one of the better ones in the NL. But Acta overused them consistently and two years later it is the worst part of the team and what has consistently prevented them from mounting any kind of winning streak.

Acta is Act Two in the same play of uncertain leadership that kept Bowden in DC. Indecision has become a maddening impostor parading around the Nation’s capital as patience and reason.

But Bowden’s ghost continues to haunt Acta’s Shakespeare tragedy. Not only did he create the mess Acta puts out on the field every day. But Bowden’s character was so questionable, so devoid of any positive manifestation that he makes Acta appear saint-like. Make no mistake Acta is a better person than Bowden. He is maybe a better manager than Bowden was a GM. But that is damning by faint praise.

Manny Acta is a good and patient man, a great husband and father. But there is no objective evidence that he is a good manager. Unless the Nationals can mount some kind of winning streak, Manny Acta needs to go.

Bench coach Jim Riggleman is rumored to be the successor, at least on an interim basis. Jon Heyman at SI asserted that Bobby Valentine is a logical choice as a successor for the Nationals. But that kind of speculation seems to be looking far down a road that has many sharp twists and turns left to maneuver.

If the new manager is Jim Riggleman, he has more good news than bad. The good news is that expectations could not be lower and the bad news is pretty much already known. So there is hardly a down side for Riggleman. The Nationals winning percentage of .262 is unlikely to get much worse. If there is any real significant bad news it is the inability to imagine Riggleman turning this team around and convincing Mike Rizzo that he can do the job long term

However, Riggleman could be a popular replacement. He is a product of the local Washington area schools. He knows this area and its traditions. He managed in San Diego in the early 1990’s and took a bad team and made it better. But when he moved over to the better funded Cubs, he did not produce a winner.

He has a .445 winning percentage as a manager and only twice has had winning teams. He did win the wild-card with the 1998 Cubs–the highlight of eight season at the helm of three teams–but lost three straight to the Braves in the playoffs and went home.

The future is not Jim Riggleman. But Bobby Valentine is just one of many moves the Nationals ownership needs to consider. They need not just a more aggressive manager like Valentine, but the pieces for him to push around the chess board. Shelling out the money for a real closer and better defensive players up the middle would be the first steps necessary to convince a manager of Valentine’s caliber that Washington’s front office is serious.

The Nationals need more than a shake up. They need new parts and maybe Bobby Valentine is one of those, but it is unlikely he will sign on without more of a commitment to winning than has been seen so far in DC.